


All Better

by ztd



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Light Angst, Robot Dinosaurs, i kept trying to type robot dinosaurs and it autocorrected to robot sex i hate this fucking website, tending to your lovers wounds, theyre married hehehehe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25175080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ztd/pseuds/ztd
Summary: “Can I come in?” He asked, softly knocking on the oak door.“Yeah, you’re fine, but I’m really-” Fiona inhaled sharply, and he heard her nearly lose her balance Rhys opened the door, eyes falling upon his wife, blood dripping from what looked like a deep gash on the right side of her abdomen. She was clutching it, trying her best to look as nonchalant as possible despite a good quarter of her body being covered in red and the fact that she had to cling to the sink just to remain standing. Her husband stared back at her, mouth slightly agape.“I’m good.”
Relationships: Fiona/Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	All Better

He wasn’t entirely sure what it was that woke him up.

He was too deep a sleeper to hear her leave, the light she’d turned on was way too far down the hallway for it to disturb him, and he didn’t feel her wriggle out from underneath the arm he had wrapped around her.

The bed just felt cold without her, he supposed.

“Fi…?” Rhys croaked, rubbing his organic eye as he propped himself up on his shoulder. Fiona was nowhere to be found. Rhys cleared his throat, calling out for his wife once again but no one answered him. He opened his palm interface, looking to the clock in the upper right-hand corner of the hologram.

2:46 AM.

What the hell could she be doing at this hour?

Rhys got out of bed, taking a small sip of water and shrugging on an old Atlas t-shirt but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed-

Okay, that definitely hadn’t been there when they’d gone to bed.

A small pool of blood had stained the side of the bed Fiona’d been sleeping on. Rhys’ eyes widened.

“Fiona!” He called out again, more urgent than before. She was- I mean she had to be okay, right?

“I’m in- shit” she called back, hissing that last word in pain “I’m in here.” Rhys breathed a sigh of relief. She was still here. He walked down the hallway, stopping at their bathroom, soft yellow light radiating from behind the door.

“Can I come in?” He asked, softly knocking on the oak door.

“Yeah, you’re fine, but I’m really-” Fiona inhaled sharply, and he heard her nearly lose her balance Rhys opened the door, eyes falling upon his wife, blood dripping from what looked like a deep gash on the right side of her abdomen. She was clutching it, trying her best to look as nonchalant as possible despite a good quarter of her body being covered in red and the fact that she had to cling to the sink just to remain standing. Her husband stared back at her, mouth slightly agape.

“I’m good.” She said, completely straight-faced.

“What the hell happened to you?” Rhys said, obvious concern in his voice as he walked in. He placed a hand on the small of her back, providing a bit of support.

“I’m good,” Fiona repeated, a bit more forcefully this time “You can go back to sleep. I’ll catch up with you in a little bit, don’t wor-” She cut herself off with another pained gasp. Rhys furrowed his brow.

“I’m not going back to sleep.” He said, “I’m gonna grab a hypo. And a chair. And towels. Yeah, definitely towels,”

“You really don’t-” Fiona murmured, as he planted a quick kiss to her forehead and rushed out of the room She rolled her eyes, shuffling to the toilet trying to disturb her wound as little as possible. It didn’t work. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from yelping as she sat down.

After a moment or two, Rhys returned, carrying a chair with a large heap of towels and a small health hypo piled up on the seat. Fiona raised her eyebrows.

“Might have gone a little overboard on the towels,” She commented, the usual snark in her tone dulled by the intense pain in her side. Rhys shrugged, setting up the chair near her and placing the towels on the floor. He picked up the hypo.

“Can I- uh,” Rhys fumbled with his words “Use..? This?” Fiona hated that he made her laugh, because laughing hurt so damn much right now but nevertheless she chuckled and nodded. Rhys sanitized the needle as Fiona lifted her arm, allowing him access to her injury. She winced as he injected it. She’d never liked needles much, but soon the small pinching feeling went away, as did most of the agonizing pain from her gash. It still didn’t feel good, don’t get her wrong, but whatever the hell was in those med hypos made her feel a whole lot better than she did before. She made a mental note to thank Zed the next time she ran into him.

“Alrighty,” Rhys said, standing up to rinse the blood off his flesh hand and wiping his metal one off on one of the towels. Huh, maybe he had been onto something bringing so many. “That should stop the bleeding. For now, at least”

“Thanks,” Fiona breathed, leaning back and exhaling a sigh of relief. Rhys sat back down, taking one of her hands in both of his as his wife shut her eyes.

“What happened?” He asked quietly, studying her face. She was so pale, a thin layer of sweat covered her visage and accentuated the dark bags beneath her eyes. God, she must be exhausted, Rhys thought.

“I’unno” Fiona murmured, opening her eyes “It opened back up when I was sleeping, must have been moving too much.” Rhys grimaced.

“I didn’t even know you’d been hurt this badly,” He said, rubbing his flesh thumb in small circles near her knuckle.

“I kinda forgot about it, honestly,” she said, shrugging “Athena fixed me up pretty quickly and then we went back to looking for intel.”

“I think we should disinfect it,” Rhys said. Fiona nodded as he stood up and walked over to the medicine cabinet. He pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol as well as some bandages and medical tape and sat back down.

“Could you, uh-” He gestured vaguely towards the side of his shirt. Fiona knew what he meant, lifting up the now very stained camisole she’d worn to bed.

“How’d you get hurt, anyway?” Rhys asked, “This doesn’t look like a normal stab wound.”

“Oh, uhh…” Fiona said, slowly “You know those dinosaur thingies on Gehenna?”

Rhys blinked, processing with his mouth agape.

“You got bitten by a dinosaur and you didn’t tell me?”

“It’s okay, it was one of the robot ones”

“That doesn’t worry me any less!”

“I’m sorry, it just- I forgot,” Fiona scrambled, taking a breath “And… I dunno, I didn’t want you to worry about me.”

They sat there for a moment, silent as he held the small piece of gauze in his metal hand, soaking it with alcohol. His brow was furrowed and a small frown rested on his face. Fiona bit the inside of her lip, fists clenched so tight her nails left half-moon shaped imprints in her palms.

“Can I…?” He asked, looking down at the tile floor. Flecks of blood had soaked the grout. He’d have to get that cleaned up soon. Fiona nodded.

“Go ahead,” She said, surprised at how small her voice sounded. Rhys moved closer, still refusing to meet her eyes. He brought the gauze up to the jagged laceration. It was still so red, so angry despite the hypo.

He hesitated before pressing the gauze to the wound. Fiona inhaled, eyes squeezed shut as Rhys cleaned it. He tried to go as fast as he could, he hated seeing her in pain, but he knew he needed to be thorough.

“Fuck…” She grunted to herself, her whole body tensed up. Rhys pulled away instantly.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m-” She breathed, pausing to take a deep breath “You can keep going.”

Rhys didn’t want to.

He really, really didn’t want to.

But he did anyway, pressing the pad back to the deep cut and rubbing. Silence again, save for Fiona’s somewhat labored breathing. He knew he was almost done, he had to be, but that didn’t make all of this suck any less.

He paused for a moment as he felt something creep into his flesh hand. Fiona’s hand had snaked its way into his, soft and almost cautious; as if it was asking for permission. Rhys looked up at her. Her face was still scrunched up, but it seemed to soften a bit as he accepted her hand. The same couldn’t be said about her grip. Rhys worried he’d come out of this with a completely misshapen hand and a broken bone or two but he nevertheless he held her as he finished up disinfecting the gash.

“Okay, I’m done,” Rhys said softly, wadding up the dirty gauze pad and tossing it into a small garbage can beside them. Fiona’s posture shifted entirely, going from tight and straight too slumped over in her seat, though her hand remained in her husband’s.

Should he say something?

He should say something. Rhys cleared his throat.

“I shouldn’t h-”

“I’m really-” Fiona said, pausing to collect her words “I’m sorry. I don’t like keeping things from you I just- Atlas, y’know?”

“Uhh,” Rhys said, blinking “No? What about Atlas..?”

“I dunno, it’s…” She sighed, sitting back up “You have a lot going on. Atlas is the biggest it’s been since I was a teenager and stuff like this-” She shrugged trying to find the right words “It’s not that big of a deal on Pandora, I felt weird putting even more on you.. That’s- it’s not an excuse, but-”

“Fi…” Rhys said, bringing her hand to his lips, giving it a soft kiss “No matter how big Atlas gets its never going to come before you.” He paused, “I know you’re going to get hurt out there, I don’t… I don’t want to sound like I don’t support you I just want to be there for you when you need me. Even if that happens to entail stabbing you with a hypo at- shit, what time is it?” He whipped open his palm interface “4:11 in the morning”

Fiona’s eyes were glassy and clearly exhausted, but she shot him a soft smile as she chuckled.

“Yeah… Okay,”

Rhys sat up, leaning in and planting a soft kiss on her lips. Fiona closed her eyes, placing her palm on his cheek. They broke apart after a moment, Rhys staring at his wife with that stupidly cute goofy smile of his.

“And for the record, I do think being bitten by a robot dinosaur is pretty badass” He said. Fiona snorted.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Now,” Rhys said, picking up the bandages from the tile floor “We should probably get this patched up, huh,” Fiona nodded, stretching out her shoulders and straightening her back. Rhys unraveled a long, thin strip of the Anshin-brand gauze, wrapping it around his wife’s torso a few times. He could feel her breathing, the soft rise and fall of her chest as he ripped the end off it off.

“Could you-” Rhys began, but Fiona was already holding the loose end down with her finger. “Thanks-” He murmured as he leaned down to grab the medical tape, tearing off a small piece and fastening the gauze to itself.

“That feel okay?” He asked, looking up at her.

“Yeah,” Fiona said, pausing for a moment to evaluate how she felt “Still kinda hurts to breathe but what can you do,” She shrugged. Rhys’ inhaled, eyes widening.

“Oh shit, I forgot the most important part!” He said, feigning shock. Fiona’s face fell.

“What?” Fiona said, disappointed “Do we have to take off the-”

“Nope!” Rhys said, grinning from ear to ear “Let me juuuuuust…” He leaned down, giving the bandages a quick kiss.

“There. All better.”

Fiona looked at him in disbelief for a moment before chuckling, rolling her eyes.

“You are such a dork”

“You love me,” Rhys said through a yawn.

“Mmm, I do..” Fiona sighed, rubbing her eyes “Unfortunately.”

She leaned in, giving him a chaste kiss. She could feel him smiling against her lips, and the pair erupted into a fit of sleepy giggles upon breaking apart. She rested her head on his shoulder, her nose buried in the crook of his neck.

“I am so fucking tired.” She murmured, muffled by Rhys’ t-shirt. 

“Can you walk back to the bedroom on your own?” He said quietly, his flesh hand entangled in her hair.

“You say that like you have the upper body strength to carry me.” Rhys huffed, feigning offense.

“Psh, I could totally carry you, I just-” He said “Y’know. Don’t wanna drop you.”

Fiona stood up slowly, using the nearby counter to support herself. Rhys stood too, placing a hand on her waist, prepared to catch her if she fell as they maneuvered out of the bathroom and down the hallway.

Rhys changed the sheets on the bed as Fiona sunk down into a plush chair, shimmying out of her bloodied camisole and into one of Rhys’ silky pajama shirts. She’d made fun of them more than a few times but hell, they were soft.

When he was finished, they both collapsed onto the bed, Fiona snuggling into Rhys as he wrapped his arm around her. He kissed the top of her head, already feeling her drifting off. He hoped she was having a good dream.

He made a mental note to start working on a robot asteroid to take out that robot dinosaur when he got to work tomorrow.

Or the next day.

He probably wouldn’t be at work tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> another piece for rhyiona week 2020! this was supposed to go up yesterday but some school stuff came up (summer classes are absolute Ass) so its here today! i'm gonna try and pump out at least one more fic for this week, so stay tuned!  
> i have been SO FUCKING BLOWN AWAY BY HOW INSANELY WONDERFUL EVERYONE ELSE'S STUFF HAS BEEN the rhyiona community is really small but its made up of some of the most talented human beings on earth and i have so much love and respect for all of you. i can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store :DDDD


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